I trust that your expectations for this Christmas are grafted into a birth many years ago in the small town of Bethlehem. Whether this birth occurred in a stable or not, the significance is still overwhelming. Think of this scenario for one minute. The God of the Universe took on the character of humanity by becoming a living symbol of righteousness, truth, and integrity. He lived among his fellow Jewish ancestors until he defied common sense and went willingly to a crucifixion destined for murderers and criminals. Dying an agonizing and slow death, he hung alongside 2 other men experiencing the same execution, but in a sense, they were guilty of personal actions and Jesus was only guilty by association. He professed to be God and by his unwillingness to deny this fact, was sentenced to die for nothing he did, but only for what he would not say.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” John 1:1 (Here Jesus is not only in existence before the world began but it differentiated from the Father and explicitly called God, indicating that he shares the same nature as his Father).
“All things were created by him (vs. 16); he is “before all things” (vs. 17); and “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (vs. 19). Only deity has the prerogative of creation, preexists all things, and personifies the full essence and nature of God (Colossians 1).
Finally, Hebrews 1 tells us that according to God the Father himself – Jesus is God: “But about the Son he (the Father) says, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever” (vs. 8). Not only is the entirety of Hebrews 1 devoted to demonstrating the absolute deity of Jesus but in verses 10-12 the inspired writer quotes a passage in Psalm 102 referring to Yahweh and directly applies it to Christ. In doing so, the Scripture specifically declares Jesus equal with Israel’s God. This is why Jesus was sentenced to die! How could he deny who he was?
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